Chocolate Muffin
by Nystala
Summary: The Dragon Princess, or so she is named, finally became a shinigami like she wished. After a lot of hard work she becomes captain of squad 9 but the real question is whether she'll be accepted after they learn how dangerous she really is.


"Pleased to meet you. My name is Kageishi Kaidahime but you can call me Kaida or Ishi." The girl said and bowed politely. Captain-commander, Yamamoto, had sent a messenger to let the vice-captain know she was coming but he didn't give any details. This little girl was even shorter than Hitsugaya-taichou and looked like she was carved from stone. Her hair was a shimmering white that, when it caught the light, turned pale pink. Her skin was pale, flawless and looked as hard as marble. The only thing life like about her was her eyes and even those were pale. The aqua colored irises looked like gemstones but they shined with life as she smiled.

"So you're…the new captain?" Hisagi asked and looked down at her with widened eyes.

The nodded slowly as if embarrassed by her station. "I know I'm young but I hope with your help as my lieutenant I can support this squad to excel." She smiled again.

Hisagi bowed. "Nice to meet you." He said then straitened, "I'm Hisagi Shuuhei. Let me show you around."

"Thank you, Hisagi-san." She said and followed as he showed her around squad 9 barracks.

After she met everyone and assured them all they'd have a hard day tomorrow, she went to the captain quarters Hisagi-san showed her earlier. She lied in the comfortable bed and stared at the ceiling. Hours passed with no luck of sleep. She wasn't the least bit tired and she knew it was because she didn't do anything active that day. She rolled out of bed and put her captains cloak on. Maybe a walk would help.

Kaida walked around seireitei with no real intent on going anywhere. She ended up passing by hachi bantai's barracks (squad 8).

"You're up late, Hime-chan." Came a voice from above. Kaida perked up at the voice. Only one person called her princess. She looked up and saw a person looking down at her from the roof.

"Kyoraku-sempai!" she smiled.

"Come join me since you're awake." He said with a smile. She jumped up and plopped on her butt right next to him.

"What are you doing up here, Sempai?" Kaida asked with sweet innocence.

"Watching the moon and enjoying the night." He said, "It's a lot better with company though."

"Glad to accompany you then, Sempai."

"How did your first day as captain go?" he asked and poured a cup of sake for himself.

"It was…expected." She replied and looked down. "Everyone was polite but I knew what they were thinking."

"Oh?" he encouraged.

She sighed and pretending to quote their thoughts. "A new captain after their last one betrayed them…how can they think to trust their new one? And one so young too? Am I really capable of leading a squad. There skeptical."

"Well of course they are, Hime-chan." He announced in gentle but authoritative voice. "You can't blame them for being so narrow-minded. Trust isn't something that can just be given right away. You can have the benefit of the doubt but trust you must earn. It won't be easy, Hime-chan, but you can do it. After all, the path has pretty much already been paved for you: you aren't the only young captain."

"That's right." She said feeling a little more motivated. "Hitsugaya-taichou is young too. A little older than me but that shouldn't make a difference; I can be a good captain like him too."

"That's the spirit, Hime-chan."

Kaida looked up at Kyoraku-taichou. She smiled and couldn't help but lean over and hug him. "Thank you for the pep talk, sempai."

He hugged her back. She was a good friend and almost like a little sister to him no matter how dangerous she was said to be. Kyoraku thought she was a sweetheart. "Anytime, Hime-chan. Now go get some sleep."

She smiled then slid off the roof. She looked up and waved goodbye to him then made her way back to her squad's barracks.

The next morning, Kaida awoke full of energy. She dressed and made her way to the main room. Most of her squad was asleep. She wouldn't have that. As she made her way towards the sleeping quarters she passed the guards that were awake and gave them a wink.

She came to the sleeping quarters and spotted Hisagi just coming out through the door. He spotted her too. "Kageishi-taichou," he said surpised, "What are you doing HERE?"

Kaida gave him a smile. "I told everyone they would have a hard day today. Which means shouldn't they start early?" she paused and thought about it for a moment. "Unless you think that's a little forward for the first day."

Hisagi shook his head. "No…you're the captain; I'm sure you know what you're doing."

Her smile was soft and so was her voice when she said, "Thanks for trying to show trust even though you're still wary."

Hisagi sighed. He knew she wasn't Tousen and she probably won't betray them but…having a new captain seemed to make Tousen's betrayal more deffinate. He opened his mouth to apologize and explain but she spoke first.

"You don't have to say anything about it. I can imagine how hard it is for you that I'm here but you're trying just like I'm trying so…thank you. Just thank you. No need for explanations or anything just…keep trying, Hisagai-san."

"Thank you, Taichou." He said back to her.

She nodded and cracked open the door to the barracks. "You might want to cover your ears." She warned the made an 'O' with her fingers and put them in her mouth. With a quick blow, she whistled high and LOUD. Luckily, Hisagi had gotten his hands to his ears in time; he still heard it. He looked at her with wide-eyed amazement as the squad jumped from their beds.

"Wakey! Wakey!" she said with a happy tone that contradicted her pose of authority. Her tone quickly shifted to make the stance. "Everybody up and dressed. I want the first thirty-five seated officers on the training gounds ASAP. The rest of you will jog around the compound until it's your turn. Don't run, don't walk, I want you jogging…not killing yourselves by exhausting yourselves before I get to you."

Everyone bustled around. Kaida looked up at Hisagi with a smile. When he smiled just a little bit back she was glad she went through with this. She turned and headed to the training ground where she and Hisagi would learn to work together and they would train their squad into the ground.

"Um…Kageishi-taichou? Why are we stretching?" A braver squad member asked.

"So you don't hurt yourself by pulling a muscle or something." She replied simply like it should have been common knowledge then moved into the next stretch. Everyone followed her lead.

"But we don't stretch before fighting hollows." The same member pointed out.

"Very true." Kaida agreed and for a moment the squad member was prideful. That was something Kaida didn't stand for; people should only be proud when they have the ability to back it up. Instead of laying him out, verbally or physically, like she wanted to she calmly explained her method behind her madness. "But you see, when fighting for real you are using whatever muscle and power you have to defeat your opponent. If your opponent has more of either the battle will be hard and maybe even your loss. So to make sure that doesn't happen I'm going to help you all build muscle and power by working you until you're happy to crawl back into your beds. And you need to be loose and ready to build muscle or you'll hurt yourself…so we're stretching."

Another member, a little more unsure and shyer, spoke up. "Kageishi-Taichou? Why are you stretching with us? You seem already powerful and I'm sure whatever you're going to teach us is going real easy for you."

Kaida nodded. "That's true too…probably. But I don't want to get rusty, you know. Besides I'll be doing a slightly different exercise than you and I'll get to do it again with the next group so it will be working me. It isn't like I was born strong or smart. I'm not a genius." She moved into another new stretch. "True geniuses are rare. It isn't likely that any of you are a genius. You're smart but you aren't a genius where things come easily to you so you're going to have to work at what you want. You want to live while you fight, for whatever reason you fight, so you need strength. The stronger you want to be the harder you have to work and maybe one day…you'll be a better a more powerful captain than me. I mean, I'm surely no genius." Her last line got a few laughs.

Finally she straitened and started to lead them in several different exercises. She focused on certain muscles so they wouldn't be completely drained and so they could work other muscles tomorrow. And when the next group came along she went a little easier. It didn't take long for Hisagi to memorize his hard-working captains training program.

"Woo, somebody is working hard." A female voice came from the training ground entrance. Both Kaida and Hisagi looked over.

"Rangiku." Hisagi questioned.

The busty orange-haired woman waved with one hand. She carried something else in the other. Next to her was her captain, short, spiky silver hair and crossed arms. He looked so closed off and yet relaxed.

Kaida looked back at her thirty-five squad members she was training now. "Alright! Twenty more then you're back to jogging." She said. Then she straitened and went to greet her guests. Hisagi followed and was greeted by the woman with a big hug. Then she turned back to Kaida.

"Aw, you're so cute!" she squeaked, "I'm Matsumoto Rangiku, squad ten's vice-captain. I just wanted to see who else was a little genius like Hitsugaya-taichou."

"Matsumoto." The young captain scolded. Rangiku just smiled.

Kaida's eyes widened a little and her attention turned the other captain. "So you're Hitsugaya Toshiro? Captain of squad ten?"

He looked at her and nodded. "Yeah."

She bowed then straitened with a smile. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Kageishi Kaidahime. It's nice to know I'm not the only young captain; it's less stressful that way."

"I bet!" Rangiku exclaimed. "But Taichou handles it really well."

Kaida laughed softly and added, "Well he is a genius."

"You say that as if you're not." Hitsugaya said.

Kaida shook her head. "I just work hard. I don't want to disappoint Yama-jii or my Sempais."

Hitsugaya vaguely remembered her calling Kyoraku and Ukitake 'sempai' at the captains meeting when she was introduced as captain. He hadn't thought much of it at the time but now he wondered why she was so close to them and the captain commander without anyone else ever seeing her around.

"I didn't get to ask before about you much Kageishi-taichou," Hisagi mentioned, "Do you mind?"

Kaida shrugged. "There isn't that much to say. I've been under the care of Yama-jii since I could remember and Kyoraku-sempai and Jushiro-sempai were taught by Yama-jii so that makes them my sempais. Plus they came to play with me when I was little so that helped too."

"You were under the care of the Captain-Commander?" Rangiku mused. "No wonder you've become a captain. Oh this is for you; I almost forgot." She handed the bag to Kaida.

Kaida peeked in and saw a half of dozen giant chocolate muffins. "Wow, thank you Rangiku."


End file.
